Traditionally, the treatment of stenosis or an occlusion in a blood vessel involves technique in which a catheter device, such as a balloon catheter and a stent delivery system, is used to administer a drug to the stenosed site.
However, the above-described catheter device is not suited for insertion into a narrow blood vessel such as a retinal blood vessel and a spinal blood vessel. Consequently, the catheter device has not been applicable to narrow blood vessels. A treatment method and a medical instrument have not been previously disclosed in which a drug can be locally administered to a lesion area appearing in a narrow blood vessel such as the retinal blood vessel and/or a spinal blood vessel.
For example, Patent Application No. JP-A-2007-190369, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference for all that it teaches and for all purposes, discloses a medical device in which a drug is carried by a guide wire that is generally used for guiding a catheter into a living body.